The CMA Consumer Protection and Enforcement Regime Summit

George Lusty was appointed interim Executive Director for Consumer Protection and Markets at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on 26 February 2024. 

George is a member of the senior executive team and is an adviser to the Board.  He leads the CMA’s consumer protection and markets functions, including the enforcement of consumer protection law and delivering projects (including market reviews, studies and investigations) that address broader features of markets that may not be working well for people, businesses and the wider economy. He also leads the regulatory appeal function, through which the CMA provides independent expert scrutiny of decisions by sector regulators.

Angelique advises on competition law relating to the abuse of monopoly power and anti-competitive agreements, cartels and consumer protection. She also advises on anti-trust and consumer protection investigations, UK/EU merger control, national security, foreign direct investment controls and subsidies.

Ali Nikpay serves as co-partner in charge of the London office at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and is a co-chair of the firm’s global Antitrust and Competition Group.

Ali is ranked Band 1 by Chambers UK, is in the hall of fame for Legal 500, and was recognised in Who’s Who Legal Competition  as one of the “Global Elite Thought Leaders”. In 2017, the Financial Times  named him among the Top 10 Innovators in Europe at the 2017 FT European Innovative Lawyer Awards, which recognized the “ten original legal thinkers in a fast moving world.” In 2016, Ali was described by the UK’s leading broadsheet newspaper (the Daily Telegraph) in an editorial as “one of the world’s preeminent experts in European competition law.”

Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Ali served at both the European Commission’s DG for Competition and the UK’s competition authority. At DG COMP Ali acted as legal/policy advisor to case-teams in over 50 antitrust and merger cases. He was also lead case-handler for a number of high-profile competition and merger cases. In addition he was actively involved in the initiatives which reformed the EU’s policy on vertical agreements and non-cartel horizontal agreements.

During his time at the UK competition Authority, Ali held a number of important positions including senior director for Merger Decisions, senior director of its Cartels and Criminal Enforcement division and senior director of Policy International (in which capacity he interacted with senior officials at agencies in the U.S., the EU, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada etc). He was also a member of the authority’s highest decision-making organ, its Executive Committee.

Rona specialises in UK and EC competition and merger control law. She advises UK and international clients on the wide range of competition law matters, including of anti-trust litigation.  She is recognised as a leading practitioner in her area and was acclaimed as one of the Lawyer's "Hot 100" for her contributions.

Her clients span a variety of sectors, including comprehensive experience of advising in the retail and consumer sector for over 20 years.  She also regularly advises in regulated sectors and co-leads the firm's Water Group.  She is recognised by Legal 500 as a leading individual in that area.

Leonidas Theodosiou advises on antitrust, foreign direct investment (FDI), and regulatory matters, having practiced in London and Brussels for more than a decade. He is highly recommended by leading directories in the “EU and Competition” and “Competition Litigation” categories, and has been identified by The Legal 500 as one of the UK’s leading “Next Generation Partners” in the area of competition law. Leo is also recognized by Global Competition Review as one of the world’s Top 40 Lawyers Under 40 in FDI regulation. Clients have praised his “extensive international capabilities” and described him as “extremely skilled and responsive.”  Leo is one of few lawyers globally who are fully qualified to practice law in the United Kingdom, the European Union, and the United States.

Tom is a partner at Geradin Partners, having previously been Legal Director at the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

Tom led the legal team on the Digital Markets Taskforce, set up by the UK Government to advise it on digital regulation.  He also directed the CMA’s influential digital advertising market study, the CMA’s work on setting up the Digital Markets Unit, and its antitrust enforcement cases in the tech sector.  Tom was the only private practice lawyer to be invited to give testimony to the Public Bill Committee of the UK Parliament during the passage of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act.  He advises companies on digital regulation in the UK, the EU and other jurisdictions.

Tom advises companies that are under investigation for competition law or consumer law infringements in a variety of sectors, and also those involved in market studies and market investigations. He has significant experience in the banking sector, having led the team that implemented the UK’s Open Banking regulations, which came out of the CMA’s retail banking market investigation.  He has worked on several abuse of dominance cases in the pharmaceutical sector. 

Tom was previously Director of Mergers at the CMA, responsible for the delivery of the CMA’s phase 1 mergers portfolio and liaising with the European Commission. He also guided many of the CMA’s most high-profile phase 2 merger cases such as Sainsbury’s/Asda (groceries) and BT/EE (telecoms). At Geradin Partners, Tom handles clients’ multi-jurisdictional deals that require clearance in many different jurisdictions worldwide. He advised Veolia on the UK merger control aspects of its €13 billion acquisition of Suez, which was cleared with remedies at Phase 2.

He is a regular speaker at competition law conferences and appears frequently in the print and broadcast media, including the BBC Today programme, the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg TV.  Tom is also the Chair of Citizens Advice Southwark, a charity providing free confidential advice on issues such as debt, housing, benefits and immigration.

Sarah is the Head of the Competition Group in the Innovation department. 

Sarah is a very experienced litigator, specialising in competition litigation, with particular experience acting for claimants in complex, high profile cases involving competition law based claims or defences.  Sarah has represented clients in leading competition damages claims in the English courts and in arbitrations.

Sarah also assists businesses that find themselves under investigation by Competition Regulators and businesses that are concerned about the way their affairs may have been conducted - attending Dawn Raids, advising on defence strategies, assisting with responses to information requests, applying for leniency from fines (where appropriate), assessing potential civil liabilities, and making submissions.

Sarah has been recognised as a recommended individual for Competition Litigation in Chambers & Partners and Legal 500, who have recognised her as "a great team leader in litigation matters."

Sarah is a member of the Law Society Competition Section, ABA Antitrust Law Section and Competition Law Association.

Adele Behles is a Senior Associate in Willkie’s Litigation and Antitrust & Competition practice in London and has extensive experience advising on a wide range of UK and EU competition law issues across a large number of sectors.  Adele has worked on both claimant and defendant sides in complex competition claims brought in the High Court and the Competition Appeal Tribunal.  Adele has extensive experience of the collective actions regime in the UK and has experience that extends to appellate courts.  Adele has spent time in-house at Sky UK Ltd and in the BP Plc Competition and Antitrust Team.

Nafees Saeed is a partner in Weil’s Antitrust practice, where he advises on all aspects of EU and UK competition law, including merger control, cartel investigations, restrictive practices, market dominance, and sector inquiries.

Nafees has extensive experience of representing clients before global competition regulators in Asia, Australia, Africa and South America.

Nafees’ experience encompasses a broad range of industries, including technology and digital markets, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, financial services, media, telecommunications, IP/IT, consumer goods, sports, aviation, energy, chemicals, and industrial/manufacturing sectors.

Nafees recently completed an extended secondment to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority. During this secondment Nafees held the position of Director in the agency’s Mergers division and was responsible for leading a number of key Phase I and Phase II merger investigations.

Wendy trained as a Trading Standards Officer and qualified in 1988. 

She worked in a number of local authorities and was Head of Environmental Health and Trading Standards at LB Merton from 1994–2002. She worked as Director of Policy at Local Government Regulation from 2002 until 2011 responsible for policy relating to trading standards, food safety, animal health and civil registration. From April 2011 to September 2012, Wendy ran her own consultancy business undertaking a range of interim management and policy work. In September 2012 Wendy was appointed as the Director for National Trading Standards and Director of Policy for the Association of Chief Trading Standards Officers.

Michael Grenfell specialises in antitrust and competition - offering expert advice on investigations, market studies and merger control - and also consumer protection laws.

In August 2024, Michael joined Clifford Chance, based in London, bringing with him a decade of experience from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). At the CMA, he had overall responsibility for the enforcement of competition and consumer protection laws, and was an Executive director on the CMA's Board. Prior to his role at the CMA, Michael was an antitrust partner at another law firm, where he provided strategic counsel on a broad spectrum of UK and EU competition, merger control, and regulatory issues.

Tim has a broad investigations and contentious regulatory practice, which spans a wide range of authorities, including the UK Financial Conduct Authority, the Serious Fraud Office, the European Commission and the UK Competition and Markets Authority.

Tim’s particular expertise includes advising major corporations and financial institutions in respect of bribery and corruption, regulatory, antitrust and consumer protection investigations. He also has extensive experience of related competition litigation matters.

Tim is recognised as a leading individual in Who’s Who Legal: Competition - Future Leaders, Partners 2023 publication.

Tim is recognised as a Next Generation Partner for Competition Litigation by Legal 500 2024.

Tim is also described as having “tremendous ability” in the competition litigation space and is “a terrific pick to run a competition law dispute”. Legal 500 2022, Competition Litigation

Jonathan Kirk KC is currently ranked as the star individual silk for Consumer Law and Finance. His practice can be divided into three main areas: Consumer Law, Consumer Finance and Food Law.

For several years Jonathan has been ranked as the star individual silk for consumer law by Chambers & Partners and a Band 1 KC by the Legal 500.

He has been the principal author and editor of the Pink Book on consumer law (Consumer and Trading Standards: Law and Practice published by Lexis Nexis) for each of the 11 editions since it was first published in 2001.

Jonathan has been instructed to defend businesses in virtually all of the CMA’s sectoral investigations into consumer law infringements: including supermarket pricing, online retail, package holidays, furniture, carpet pricing, airline refunds, ground rents, anti-virus subscriptions, ticket reselling, dating websites and covid cancellation.

He recently represented British Airways in their successful defence to the CMA investigation in relation to Covid refunds, and is currently instructed in the sectoral investigations into supermarkets, online website architecture and greenwashing.

In the Supreme Court he represented the successful parking company in Beavis v ParkingEye, which now sets out the correct approach to the assessment of unfair terms in consumer contracts and the general application of the civil penalties doctrine.

Jonathan has also acted as an expert witness on consumer law in overseas courts. He was instructed by Apple as its expert witness on UK consumer law in the US courts for its defence of a global class action concerning the performance of older iPhone models.

For over 25 years he has advised and acted in some of most important trading standards litigation. In particular, he has defended numerous companies against allegations of mis-selling and misleading pricing, including the Tesco strawberries litigation. He was the legal adviser and draftsman for the current CTSI Pricing Practices Guide.

Helen is Of Counsel in the Antitrust & Foreign Investment Group based in London. She has over 20 years’ experience advising on a wide range of UK and EU competition matters including complex mergers, market investigations, cartel investigations, litigation (including successful appeals before the Competition Appeal Tribunal in the UK) and compliance matters.

Helen advises clients across a range of sectors and has particular expertise in retail, consumer goods, energy / infrastructure and insurance industries. She regularly advises FTSE 100 corporates at board level. She is a former recipient of the Europe Women in Business “Rising Star” award, and has spent time on client secondment to BP plc and overseas secondment to our Brussels office.

Helen oversees mentoring and recruitment for the London Antitrust & Foreign Investment group with a focus on recruiting and retaining a diverse and happy team that has the tools and flexibility for every individual to maximise their potential.

Cat is a Partner in our dispute resolution practice in London, specialising in the defence of complex and large-scale group litigation across a range of industries.

Her practice focuses on ESG, consumer protection, and data privacy / data breach claims.  Cat has particular expertise in relation to English group litigation having acted on two of the most high profile group actions in the High Court.  She has also helped numerous clients to manage contentious regulatory risks and is experienced in dealing with external regulators and authorities.

David Little advises clients on many of their most significant and complex UK, EU, and international competition law matters, including merger control, anticompetitive agreements, abuse of dominance, and litigation.

Drawing on more than a decade of experience spanning large-value transactions and sensitive disputes and investigations, David counsels leading global clients on a variety of competition issues, working closely with regulatory authorities around the world to achieve favorable outcomes for clients.

David has advised on competition issues relating to some of the largest and highest-profile transactions in recent years. He handles a range of multi-faceted, cross-border matters, including mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, investigations, sector inquiries, and foreign investment control reviews. He has experience handling standalone and follow-on litigation claims on behalf of both claimants and defendants. His practice spans industry sectors, with a particular focus on media, technology, financial services, and life sciences.

David offers clients sophisticated insight into navigating various regulatory reviews. David has worked at the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and has appeared before many of the major global antitrust enforcement agencies. He has also appeared before the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal, the European Courts in Luxembourg, and the High Court and Court of Appeal in England & Wales.

Jackie Holland’s practice focuses on EU and UK antitrust enforcement, merger control, State aid/subsidies, competition litigation, market investigations, and sectoral regulation.

She represents clients before the Competition and Markets Authority, the European Commission, and sectoral regulators, as well as in litigation in the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal and the European Court of Justice.

Jackie brings to her client work more than 30 years of experience in the public and private sectors.  She has particular insight into the working practices of the competition authorities having spent five years in senior positions at the Office of Fair Trading, including Senior Director of the Policy Group and a Phase 1 decision-maker for mergers.  She helped to reform the agency’s merger control regime and antitrust procedures, and introduced a Procedural Officer to oversee the agency’s casework.